1. Field of the Invention
This invention is generally related to clothing and article support racks or organizers and more specifically, to racks for supporting a plurality of articles or clothing accessories including such items as scarfs, ties, belts, handbags or purses, necklaces, chains and the like and which is constructed in such a manner as to provide a plurality of support rods for accomodating varying sizes and types of such articles wherein the support rods are configured so as to prevent accidental displacement of the articles carried thereon. In addition, the racks are telescopically carried by support housings in such a manner as to be extended or cantilevered outwardly from a normally out-of-the-way storage position to a position where access to articles carried by the racks is facilitated. The racks are also carried by their support housing in such a manner that the articles carried by the racks are protected from being accidentally dislodged by interference with adjacent objects or articles supported or stored in relatively close proximity thereto in an area such as a closet or wardrobe.
2. History of the Art
Heretofore, there have been many structures which have been developed to facilitate the organization of closets and/or storage spaces. Many of these concepts have utilized various modified hangers which may utilized in a closet or wardrobe in order to support varying articles of clothing or clothing accessories.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. Des. 277,248, 277,436, 280,045, 280,046, 280,047, 280,048, 280,049, 280,575, 280,785, all to Benedict, a number of configurations are shown for tie and belt racks which are designed to organize the storage of ties and belts. The racks are carried by telescoping housings in such a manner that they are normally positioned beneath the clothing support rod of a closet and yet are selectively movably outwardly of the support rod so that access to the articles carried by the racks may be facilitated. In addition, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,127 to Benedict, the extendable concept was further utilized to enable a plurality of clothing support bags to be movably disposed within a closet or wardrobe so as to facilitate the placement and/or selection of articles from such bags.
Other prior art devices have also been designed to enable a plurality of items to be stored on a single carrier thereby making it possible for a plurality of clothing articles to be stored in one area and yet separately spaced with respect to one another so that selection of a particular article of clothing is facilitated.
Many of the prior art structures including those discussed above have had somewhat limited usefulness in that they were primarily designed to support generally specific articles such as relatively narrow ties, belts, bands, chains and the like. In view of the foregoing, wider articles of clothing accessories such as scarfs could not be neatly organized utilizing such structures. Generally, the supporting surfaces provided by multiple article support racks have not been of sufficient width to permit wider clothing accessories including scarfs to be neatly stored thereon while simultaneously providing support for other narrow articles. Many of the prior art racks, although providing a plurality of clothing or article support hooks, carried such support hooks along a central support rod in such a way that the rod effectively divided each of the supporting elements into half sections thus restricting or limiting the placement of larger articles thereon.
Some other examples of the prior art include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,569,761 to Hibbs, 2,917,185 to Kovacs, 2,985,311 to Abel, 3,124,253 to Petrich, 3,160,279 to Hovey, 3,335,872 to Dodich, 3,389,807 to Manning et al., 3,897,122 to McEvers and 3,954,182 to McEvers.